


devil on your shoulder

by desitonystark



Series: AU-gust 2020 [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Angel Tony Stark, Demon Clint Barton, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25686292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desitonystark/pseuds/desitonystark
Summary: As an Angel, Tony's job is to investigate potential humans, assess whether they're fit to enter Heaven. The worst (read: best) part of that job, is what when Hell got word of their investigations, they started sending Clint to accompany him.//AU-gust day 4: Angels and Demons AU
Relationships: Clint Barton/Tony Stark
Series: AU-gust 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858159
Comments: 2
Kudos: 75





	devil on your shoulder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JustSomeoneUnordinary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustSomeoneUnordinary/gifts).



> “I don’t want to hear it. You’re evil; you manipulate your words to deceive people.” [(from this prompt list)](https://writing-ideas-inc.tumblr.com/post/161001413553/hello-i-want-to-try-to-write-a-demon-and-angel%20rel=)  
> 

Humans were dreadfully complicated creatures. They had all sorts of motivations and intentions and conflicting life experiences that made it incredibly messy for Angels to assess whether or not they were to be granted safe passage to Heaven. This meant, more often than not, Pepper sent Tony down personally to investigate the life that the human had led.

It wasn't that Tony was averse to spending time on Earth, there was something freeing and oddly fulfilling about shedding his wings for their odd clothing and walking amongst humans with the knowledge that he had. It was that Hell recently got word of his field trips (for lack of a better word) down to Earth and decided that it was the fair and just thing (as if Demons ever cared about fair and just) to send an envoy of their own.

That meant that Tony was spending his time on Earth with Clinton.

"Natasha Romanoff," Pepper slides the file across to Tony, who thumbs it open to see the striking figure of a petite redhead, "I need you to go down there for a couple months. Figure out what her story is."

"It says here that she has almost two hundred kills to her name," Tony looks up at Pepper with a furrowed brow, "Surely this isn't a hard judgement to make."

Pepper's face twists, and if Angels were capable of grimacing, that's what Tony would've called her expression, "This isn't from me. This is from the Woman upstairs. Says that Natasha reminds her of somebody and wants to make sure we're doing the right thing before we condemn her to Hell."

Tony wants to say something, but he knows better to argue with Pepper, so he dips his head slightly and sees himself out. It's quick work to pack a small bag of essentials and glamour his wings away; his white robes falling away to reveal a loose black tee and jeans. He stretches a couple of time experimentally, shaking out his fingers - and stuffs the file inside his quiver.

Then he stretches his hands out, palms facing up; and falls.

This is always his favourite part, the way the air whips around him and the world shifts and changes before his very eyes. He knows that when the Demons fell, it wasn't fast or smooth or painless - that Heaven wept for their pain, but he can't tell but imagine that it must have felt something like this.

He falls gracefully into a back-alley, narrowly missing a hunkering black trash-can filled to the brim. When he's finishing dusting himself off and looks up, Clint is leaning against the wall and looking at him with a smile, dressed in some sort of purple monstrosity.

"Clinton," he says with faux politeness, "I presume you're here about Natasha Romanoff?"

"Is that her name?" he pursues his lips, and Tony hates him all at once because he'd never known lust until he met Clint, "I've been calling her Little Red in my mind. You know because she's -"

"Petite and a redhead," Tony finishes, "yes I can put that together for myself thank you."

Clint beams at him, "I always knew you were a smart cookie. You're wasting away upstairs. You should come and hang out with me sometimes." He waggles his eyebrows in a way that's clearly meant to be suggestive, but damn if it doesn't stir something inside of Tony, "I can show you how the other half lives."

"No thank you," Tony says shortly, and he must imagine the way that Clint's face falls, because it’s gone in a second, "I like where I am right now."

/

"So, correct me if I'm wrong but Little Red -"

"Natasha -"

"Natasha has, or had rather, past tense - " Clint touches his forehead and then his chest, before moving to his shoulders, and it takes Tony an absurdly long amount of time to realise that he's just made a cross. The thought makes him want to laugh, but he bites his tongue, " - has an incredibly long list of victims."

He twists so that he's walking backwards, and Tony wants to reach out and grab him because he's expertly flitting through the crowd, and it's going to give them away, "Which begs the question, what're you guys interested in her for?"

Tony shrugs, "I'm not sure," he says honestly, "I asked Pepper the same question. All she said was that the woman upstairs thought that Natasha was worth redeeming, so I had to come and investigate."

"You don't feel the same," Clint says knowingly, and Tony flushes. "It's not for me to decide who is and is not worthy," Tony says loyally.

Clint snorts, "that sounds like a Company line. Pepper tell you to say that one too?"

Tony doesn't say anything. Mostly because it was Pepper who told him to say that, but he doesn't want to give Clint the satisfaction. From the way Clint smiles though, he has the feeling that he already knows.

"If you think she's a shoe in for Hell," he says, to change the topic, "Why did you come up to investigate?"

Clint puts a hand against his chest and gasps theatrically, "And miss a chance to see you? Never."

Tony's cheeks heat, and he resolves to keep quiet for the rest of their time together.

He missed the time when all humans did was eat forbidden apples and lie. Things were so much easier then.

Undeterred by Tony's vow of silence (probably because he was unaware of said vow), Clint fishes out a file from his quiver. It's also purple. "Born and raised in Russia," he reads aloud, "Graduate of the Black Widow programme before she defected and worked for -" he squints his eyes, even though Tony knows that he has perfect vision, "Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division."

He whistles lowly, "They need to find a way to shorten that. That's a mouthful. Imagine having to yell that on the job." He thrusts out his hand in a facsimile of the few humans they'd seen in law enforcement during one of their trips down, "STOP. I'm Agent Clint of Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division."

Tony can't help it, he giggles; eyes crinkling. "The person you're catching would run away by the time you finished," he agrees. "I think they call it SHIELD, for short." Clint looks at him with a quizzical expression and he rushes to explain, "I was investigating a human once, an Agent Coulson. He worked for the same agency."

"I can't believe you sat on that information, and allowed me to embarrass myself in front of all of these humans," Clint gestures around widely, even though they're in a secluded portion of the park and there's nobody around to watch them, "One would think you were out to get me Tony."

"That would be outrageous and ill-founded," Tony replies in a deadpan voice, and resolutely ignores the way his heart skips a beat.

"You're a little shit aren't you?" Clint says with ill disguised awe, and jostles Tony with his shoulder, "Under all that Angel-ness, you're a little bit like me."

"No," Tony says with a frown, "You're evil. You manipulate your words to deceive people. I'm nothing like you."

Clint's silent for a couple of seconds, and Tony sneaks a glance at him, worried that he's offended the Demon. His face betrays nothing though, and he throws his arm around Tony's shoulder, pulling him in closer. "I'll get you to admit it eventually," he says with a smile, even as Tony's face goes red because of their proximity, "but for now - I believe we have a pirate to interview about our redhead."

_Fin_

**Author's Note:**

> i think this is my first time ever writing clint, and its definitely my first time writing ironhawk so hopefully it wasn't too OOC!!  
> [tumblr saw it first](https://ad1thi.tumblr.com/post/625455468780945408/devil-on-your-shoulder-au-gust-day-4-angels-and)  
> [my ig](https://www.instagram.com/desi_tonystark/)  
> 


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